IBM (NYSE: IBM) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire FilesX, a privately held storage software company based in Newton, Mass., and Haifa, Israel, that specializes in continuous data protection and nearly instant data and application recovery software for enterprises and remote/branch offices. The acquisition is expected to close shortly. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The proliferation of data and information across the distributed enterprise are causing businesses of all sizes to seek better data recovery and information risk management solutions. FilesX products help address this need by delivering continuous data protection and fast recovery of business critical applications and servers running on Microsoft Windows platforms. Following the close, IBM intends that the FilesX technology will become part of the Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) family of products, IBM’s flagship suite of data protection and information infrastructure offerings, with proven compatibility in customer environments today.

With its patented technology, FilesX helps IT staff restore data from virtually any type of failure and from nearly any point in time. Ease-of-use and self-managing features make FilesX offerings particularly attractive in environments where IT skills and budgets are limited.

For IT managers dealing with the pressures of data growth, and for chief compliance officers seeking better data controls, the acquisition should enable IBM to offer an end-to-end data protection solution from laptops to remote/branch offices, data centers and disaster recovery sites. Across the enterprise, customizable data protection features in both disk-based and tape-based environments are designed to improve data governance and provide nearly continuous user access to data even in the face of IT disruptions.

FilesX has more than 100 customers in the United States and Israel, spanning government, education, healthcare, financial services and manaufacturing.